AL.com columnist Kyle Whitmire today earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary for State of Denial, his yearlong dive into Alabama false history and the way that history shapes the state today.

For more than 20 years, Whitmire has covered Alabama and the politics within the state, establishing himself as a trusted voice on the shenanigans in Montgomery.

In 2022, working with investigative editor Challen Stephens, Whitmire dedicated himself to showing how 150 years of whitewashed history and a rigged political system have left the state stunted.

Whitmire traced how a near riot on the state capitol steps in 1894 connected to a voting rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, how the daughter of a U.S. political dynasty threaded her racist beliefs through the current public school curricula and how Black lawmakers still struggle to defend their constituents from a majority white Alabama Legislature. He approached the subject matter with curiosity rather than contempt.

“Kyle’s work is the kind of journalism that can only be done when you love a place enough to ask it to be better – and that’s what he’s done here for Alabama,” said Kelly Scott, editor in chief and vice president of content at AL.com. “The themes he brings to life show us that we have much to learn from our past – all of it.

Together, the pieces in State of Denial make a powerful argument — that Alabama’s failures are no accident, but were the careful design of post-Civil War white supremacists, a cultural legacy of discrimination and oppression that continues to determine governance, influence education and impact life in Alabama today.

“As our state and the country debate how we talk about our history and whose perspectives are included,” said Scott, “I’m thankful that Kyle dug in to make sure everyone is included in this work.”

Read the work here: